Tag Archives: Deer And Doe Patterns

pumpkin spice… plus some lovely sea-foamy green things

28/10/2023 5:19 pm \ 5 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve finished making a few new things, both from deep deep stash. I can’t stress enough how happy it makes me feel to be methodically using up ye olde stash! I feel so virtuous. Particularly since such a lot of it was not even bought by me in the first place, but foisted upon me – and I must say here that I truly do appreciate everything that has been given to me, many many pieces have proved to be very lovely and beautiful quality, and very useful too when it comes to testing patterns and new designs! It is also true though that I am at a stage in my life when I want to whittle it down, for good. I have dreams of a more minimalist future, and I’m determined to see it through.

Firstly; a new dress for me, using a pattern that has become a favourite; the Deer and Doe Myosotis dress pattern. Such a pretty and feminine design; I think I might have to always have one hanging in my wardrobe. My blue and white gingham Myosotis is currently being worn by Cassie as a maternity dress, and quite successfully too! quite telling as to how comfortable it is.

The fabric is a quite nice, soft-pumpkin silk crepe, very lightweight and floaty, almost translucent. I’m definitely going to be wearing this with a slip, I think.

I honestly cannot remember where I bought this fabric, or even if I did buy it; and if not, who gave it to me? Honestly a complete mystery! Which makes me think it was most likely part of a stash that I inherited at some point. No matter! I do really like it and I think the colour suits me very well.

Item 2! a little knitted jacket and beanie set for Cassie’s new baby… the last time I went down to stay with my parents I bought this little pattern pamphlet from a yarn and quilting shop in Bridgetown; Naturally Yarns K679. I wanted to get something for the baby, and also to support a local business, but honestly felt very conflicted about buying a finished something when I SHOULD be using up my own supplies…. anyway I did achieve kind of both.

This set is the 6-9 month size. All yarns are from the very large yarn stash that I’ve inherited over time – and no; I am NOT accepting new submissions! I really think I could have a lifetime of knitting ahead of me, no purchase necessary… It was pretty fun though, to try to make the scraps that I had into some sort of design idea, and I’m very pleased with the outcome! I literally used up the entirety of ALL these yarns, with the exception of a small amount of the lime green yarn used for the beanie and collar. It’s the most thrilling thing to successfully use up yarn, and use it up even semi-aesthetically. I know, right?!! SO proud!!

Finally, item 3; and this is sadly not from my own stash, but from Cassie’s. I volunteered to make up one of the fabrics she had bought for her summer/autumn breast-feeding friendly wardrobe. What else to make but one of our own Yallingup designs?! We both believe in this design so thoroughly and it’s a little sad that it has not been as popular as we were hoping. I wonder if it’s not clear that the regular, and the breast-feeding friendly version are actually separate designs, even though they look the same from the outside?

Anyway, we both love it! and Cassie has made up quite a few more of the breast-feeding friendly versions herself for her time with this new baby. And this is one that I made for her.

The fabric is a Nano Iro Air Time design in colour way B.. it’s so beautiful it would make literally anything look absolutely amazing. Hey, I still believe that our Yallingup is independently beautiful too though! I could not fit the pattern pieces onto the small piece of fabric in the traditional way, so the front and back are top to toe, and the wrap piece is cut on the cross, with the tail ends of the tie cut and pieced from the scraps.

I had to cut the facing from a separate piece of plain white cotton, through lack of fabric. She’s modelling it here, 8+ months pregnant, sure it’s a little short but it’s not too bad for a non-maternity design! It’s going to be even better once she’s out of the pregnant stage, and into the breast-feeding stage which is what it’s designed for.

That’s it for now! I still have a few, unphotographed and yet to be blogged things up my sleeve! Until then… 🙂

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: baby clothes, babywear, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, daily outfit, deer and doe patterns, dress, knitting, Myosotis, naturally yarns K679, stash busting, Wardrobe Refashion, yallingup

gingham!! carrot cake!!

29/11/2021 6:35 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I made a fun new frock…

I received 2m of this gorgeous blue gingham from Minerva; it’s very light and floaty and so I decided to make a little sun frock. I spent several hours laying different patterns down on the fabric to see which one would result in minimal leftovers; something that has become really common for me now when I’m deciding on a project for a piece of fabric . The Deer and Doe Myosotis pattern “just” squeezed on with absolutely no leftovers at all! and even then I had to cut the sleeve cuffs out on the cross instead of with grain. Which is no hardship at all, of course… Can you even tell? The gingham squares are so regular and even … it’s hard to see if you don’t really check it out very carefully!

I’ve used the Myosotis pattern once before, for this favourite little sun frock, and this time I did a substantial small bust adjustment to the pattern. Basically I rotated out the front waist darts completely and reduced the bust dart by about half, and the result is a really good fit for me! I left the back waist darts unchanged, because I do have a small sway back and so this shaping suited me well.

it appears that the shoulder is altered in the right hand photo, but it hasn’t; it’s just that the paper is floating up a bit at that point

I used three small white buttons for my stash for closure, and all the raw edges inside the dress are overlocked with ivory thread to finish.

I submitted a long blog post to Minerva on the dress, here, which you can read if you like..

In baking news, and yes! I do seem to be doing a bit of baking lately! I made a carrot cake for Dad’s birthday… to be clear, this was not THE birthday cake, which Mum made, but more of a consumable treat for Dad as a birthday present, since he’d stipulated absolutely NO birthday presents, please.

I did a bit of sleuthing to find out his favourite eatable treat, and lo! it is carrot cake (surprise!) So I made one! I figured at least this is a present that will be consumed and then it’s gone, and doesn’t need storing or dusting or anything.

I used this recipe from the cooking tree, yes she is my favourite thing to watch at the moment! and it was absolutely delicious. We all liked that there was a much higher proportion of icing to cake than usual.

I really enjoyed decorating the cake!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: baking, daily outfit, deer and doe patterns, dress, Myosotis

Cap Ferrat and Myosotis

06/11/2020 8:16 am \ 6 Comments \ Carolyn

The funny thing was; I knew I was going to like this dress because the fabric is just so utterly divine, the pattern that I was a little hmmm about…? but I’m completely in love with the end result so all’s well that ends very very well!

So, fabric first… this is a cotton lawn from Storrs of London. It is described as a 100% Egyptian Superfine cotton lawn, and it is, as already mentioned; DIVINE. It has the exact same feel and hand, and gentle light crispness as Liberty… although diehard Liberty aficionados might come for me, but that’s just my honest opinion! This particular design is Cap Ferrat, and I honestly struggled to choose just one because there are so many breathtakingly lovely colours and prints to peruse. I absolutely have to get some more for a shirt for Craig… or maybe just another piece for myself hmmm hehe…

The pattern, this is the popular Deer and Doe Myosotis dress, of which I’ve seen more lovely versions than I can mention! I actually bought the pattern two years ago, and it’s taken me this long to finally get around to it, which is a little embarrassing, huh. I dunno, I’ve just been busy. #weddings Anyway, I’ve always liked the style and thought this gorgeous print would look nice in the style. And it does!

So like I said, I did have reservations about it though… as I shall now address. The bust darts on this thing are FIERCE. I think it really is intended for a far more busty lady than myself, to be honest and was quite worried I was going to end up with the dreaded deflated balloon look on my chest. I debated whether to tone them down, perhaps to redraft the front to be a more gentle princess seam or something. Eventually I did reduce the darts a bit but still went for the double darted style as designed, and while the front is still a wee bit flooffy on me I don’t think it’s too bad. For a future version I will definitely tone them down even more though.

Everything else about the style I love, though. The sleeves are super lovely, and I completely adore the gently V neckline too, and even the gathered skirts are beautifully proportioned and look very on-trend to my eyes.

It does feel quite short on me! and I even made the hem a teensy bit longer, and hemmed as narrow as I could. Probably best to avoid touching my toes in public… but I do think the style is super cute though, so I’m happy. Cute and flirty and fun and perfect for summer. Everyone needs a sweet little red dress for summer! 🙂

Normally I find gathering to be a pain in the neck, but this crisp, very lightweight cotton took to it beautifully. Yes, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the gathering was actually a dream. You know how some fabrics are just a delight to work with, from the very beginning of a project to the end? Well that’s exactly what this stuff is. Just pure joy. In case it wasn’t obvious, I can highly recommend!

I also whipped up a quick mask! Haha, I felt extremely self conscious wearing this! even though I was all by myself taking these photos, apart from Clara; see, we are extremely lucky so far here in Western Australia that our hard border closure has ensured we have no community cases of covid-19, so basically no one is wearing masks yet; but I think we’re not kidding themselves that we will never get cases here. I think it’s inevitable, eventually. Anyway, I do carry one of my masks around in my bag all the time, and I thought it would be fun to whip up a matching one for this dress … I’ve seen so many cute matching masks from other makers on instagram! I lined it with red poplin, leftover from one I’d made for Craig’s Mum, and cut strips off an already partially cut-up old free Wildcats T-shirt for the straps.

So, funny story… I know it’s not obvious in my pictures here, but… did you notice my footwear?!! SO I got dressed in the morning, in a hurry, because my days are packed solid at the moment and I just grabbed my thongs, shoved them on my feet and was off. I took some photos of my new dress for my blog here, did some work, and then at lunchtime took myself and Clara off to the beach for our walk. And only much later did I suddenly noticed my feet. LOL!